May 9 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Devotional

Too often Christianity is presented as a set of truths—spiritual, moral, or intellectual.

But Christianity is first of all a set of historical facts: Christ died for our sins. He was buried. He arose. He appeared to the witnesses. If Christianity were a set of moral truths, the apostles, should have been moralists. If Christianity consisted of deep spiritual truths, the apostles should have been gurus, examples of spiritual elevation. If Christianity were a set of intellectual truths, the apostles should have been sages, and we should all become scholars.

But the apostles were men who entered into the arena of the world with their testimony to certain facts: "We know it because we saw it. We saw him crucified. We saw his grave. We knew he was dead. Then we saw him alive. We touched him; we heard him. And we, sinners who are telling this to you, went with him to the top of Mount Olivet. And we saw him go up into the skies. We saw it with our own eyes. Do you believe us or not?"

Christianity has many things to offer—a system of truth, a new and radical love, a new view of people and their world, unequaled spiritual experiences, and so on. All of these have been put forward as the essence of Christianity by teachers who were gripped by one aspect or another. And indeed, none of these can be neglected. But the whole of the Christian faith rests on the simple proclamation of the great facts of redemption: Christ came and lived and died for our sins; he was buried and rose again. This is what the apostolic church of all ages preaches. On these facts every believer's faith is founded.

A person may be lacking in the application of the Christian faith to the whole of life and still be a Christian. But to deny the basic facts would be to exclude yourself from the Christian church.

REFLECTIONS

How would you explain "the basics" of what you believe to someone who is not a Christian?

Andrew Kuyvenhoven's Daylight, a modern devotional classic, was originally published by Paideia Press in 1977. This updated edition is copyright 2009 by Faith Alive Christian Resources. You can order a copy of this revised version of the book directly from the publisher.

A man of many accomplishments, Andrew Kuyvenhoven is probably best known for his contributions to Today (formerly The Family Altar), a widely-used monthly devotional booklet associated with the Back to God Hour. Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations for this updated edition of Daylight are from the Holy Bible: Today's New International Version copyright 2001, 2005 by the International Bible Society.